It is conventional for foundries to have automated conveyor systems which intermittently advance sand molds from a mold making station, through a cooling section of the conveyor, to a jacket and removal station, and through other operations stations until the metal casting is finally removed from the disintegrated sand mold. These systems involve the problem of removing the jacket and weight from each partly cooled mold and its solidified casting, and transporting to another portion of the conveyor and subsequently applying the jacket to a freshly formed green sand mold approaching the pouring station. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,731,822 and 3,789,914, and U.S. application Ser. No. 475,493, filed June 3, 1974 and now abandoned, by inventors Wilmer J. Friesen and Frank A. Hulet.
The object of the present invention is to provide a chain of individually suspended mold-carrying gondolas which is intermittently moved around a closed curvilinear post-suspended track, each gondola being capable of carrying one or more sand molds on pallets, (also known as mold boards). In a preferred form of the invention, each gondola carries two molds, each on a separate pallet positioned end to end across the line of travel of the gondolas, the pallets resting on the gondola floors which are provided with slide members permitting the pallets to be movably positioned as to outer and inner locations.
A further object is to provide means laterally adjacent said chain of gondolas, for loading pallets holding fresh sand molds on to the gondolas, and for removing pallets with their cooled loads from the gondolas, at other locations along the circuit.
A still further object is to also provide means on each gondola for holding and vertically raising and lowering weighted jackets on to and off the sand molds positioned on the outer portion of the gondola floor, the said raising and lowering means being actuated by a trolley following a guide rail attached to the track-supporting posts at intermediate elevations.
These and other objects are attained by our invention which is further described below, reference being made to the accompanying drawings showing a preferred embodiment.